Economic Empowerment at the Local Level

I am studying a course called Equality, and this is my second Action Project. In this section, “Ownership”, I studied different perspectives and definitions of the concept of ownership throughout history, to finally arrive to the present forms of implementation of the concept in different parts of the globe. I was surprised at how complex this whole principle is and even arrived to the point where I began questioning my own way of approaching ownership. For this AP I had to write a manifesto that would drive people towards questioning their own concepts of ownership and lead them toward a more equal and conscious perspective of the matter.

In this AP I had to contextualize the concept of inequality in ownership by researching about any specific  product  believed to be presently indispensable through the lens of its interaction with race, gender, and class. I have always been curious of soap; why is it a modern necessity? Why is it so important? What is it even made of? I decided to present my manifesto in the format of a podcast. Below is both the podcast and my Manifesto in written form.

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Soap is considered necessary today because it plays a main role in hygiene and prevention of diseases. Specially when washing your hands, armpits and groin, soap kills a vast amount of dangerous diseases that would otherwise be harmful. It also kills bacteria in other things through which diseases can be transferred easily, such as silverware and clothing.

The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in ancient Babylon. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali, and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC. After that, it has been found that Soap was linked to the Roman Empire, Ancient China, the Middle East, Medieval Europe, etc. all the way to the present time. 

Throughout history, Soap passed to be from a luxury to a necessity. Before, according to some historians, one could read the wealth of a civilization by measuring the quantity of soap produced. For about 50 years now, soap has been considered a hygienic necessity.

I think the best word to describe soap in the early soap making period is exclusiveness. Soap making was an exclusive technique used only by small groups of soap makers. Thus, soap was very expensive, and only the upper social classes could afford it. Over time, soap recipes became more widely known, and yet soap was still very expensive until 1791, when the frenchman LeBlanc discovered a much simpler chemical soap-making process

More than 20 years later, another Frenchman identified relationships between glycerin, fats and acid that marked the beginning of modern soap making. Since then the recipe for soap has not really changed. What has changed is the ingredients. Soap makers began acquiring products of luxury for cheap prices once palm oil was imported from Africa, and copra, the dried flesh of the coconut, imported from the Caribbean. With these new ingredients, the aspect of soap became much more attractive, instead of being the crude bar with a rather unfavorable smell and color, as previously known. 

In time, manufacturers began linking soap with cleanliness and health. With the help of marketing, which linked soap with things such as honey, sunlight, and snow, soap was conceived by the consumers as an indispensable product of personal hygiene. The industrial Revolution arrived and soap became a product of industry instead of a handicraft.

Soap has become the individual’s indispensable product, something he must constantly own and have with him. 

Nowadays, the proletarians work in industries that make soap in mass quantities, and use this same soap as well in result of its low prices. The Bourgeois make handicraft soap, which is much more expensive and made out of much more exclusive ingredients, and they use this soap as well.

In the present century, small, local businesses have begun to sprout in response to the asphyxiating industry that controls such principles like necessity, quality, and quantity. In order for these businesses to stay alive, however, they need a lot of money invested in them. The products they sell must also differentiate themselves from the products the industry is selling, usually by bettering their quality. Which is why the bourgeois are the only class who can maintain their small businesses alive and striving, offering something different and unique in contrast to the industry. 

The industry, however, continues to produce in mass quantities which permits them to lower their prices. This, and the lack of small local businesses that could offer jobs makes it so that the only options for the proletarians is to work in these industries as well as use their cheaper products.

I will now explain my intentions in the manifesto through assuming the role of the bourgeoisie in soap production. My role in the production of soap lies in the concepts of local production and local empowerment. I will use my resources to both start local businesses that offers environmentally-friendly hand-crafted soap, a unique product that contrasts in quality to the soap produced by the general industry. My market is mostly the bourgeoise itself, but I will also have cheaper products that will  also be a much simpler and yet a much healthier option for the proletarians. My business will provide jobs with better wages and working conditions. 

I will also use my apprenticeships in the business area to offer free workshops to the general community directed to empower mostly the proletarian population. The value of my work is recognized by both the bourgeoisie and the proletarian local population.

As my efforts related to my business and the education of the local population progresses, I begin to realize that others stand beside me and are willing to help. More local businesses sprout and the local economy strengthens.  The line that used to clearly divide the bourgeoisie from the proletarians begins to blur. In other words, I realize that real change comes from systemic, local, and detached efforts to the betterment of the community. 

So what is ownership in my town? Ownership means you are part of a big body of individuals who all work towards a collective goal. Ownership means each individual owns what he needs, and is willing at any time to offer his service to other inhabitants who might be in need. In my town we understand that conscious ownership benefits everyone.

My intentions in writing this manifesto is to express my belief of where real transformation comes from: Unity and commitment at the local level.

Lastly, I will sum up my intentions in a total of 4 commandments:

Commandment 1: Equality in every aspect: All inhabitants of every community/municipality must tend to equal opportunity to education. 

Commandment 2: Local business fund & institution: All inhabitants must have an opportunity to donate to a local fund which purpose is to support small, innovative, and environmentally friendly businesses. This fund must be managed by a fund institution, whose purpose is to parallelly educate the inhabitants of every community/municipality to comprehend the importance and value of the local business fund, as well as to promote the inhabitants to donate to the fund. 

Commandment 3: Local goals: All communities/municipalities must have a set of short term and long term goals that focus on improving the social/economic conditions of the area for more equal entrepreneurship opportunities. These goals must be consulted with the general population and a reflection meeting must be held every 3 months after the goals have been set to review the community’s efforts and asure they are effective and well directed.

Commandment 4: Variables: There may be variables in all the previous commandments that accommodate themselves to the culture and reality of every specific community/municipality, but they must first be consulted with a general national body whose purpose is to promote and ensure social/economic justice.

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Citations:

Song in Podcast: Choros No.1, Hector Villa Lobos, interpreted by RS.

"Surfing the Streets of Pto. Ayora" Artpiece

I am studying a course called Equality, and this is my third and last Action Project. In this unit we studied about why different things have been censored throughout the history of equality and freedom across the globe, and created a personal point of view of how and when the concept of censorship needs to be applied in different scenarios. For this Action Project we had to create an artistic piece of political propaganda based on a case study about a social issue we chose to purse. I especially enjoyed this Action Project because it permitted me to have a critical eye towards the reality of the town I live in, which further nurtured my sense of responsibility and appropriation for my town.

“Surfing the streets of Pto. Ayora”, RS.
Dip Pens  & Black Ink, 297 x 420 mm Paper

Censorship is the act of prohibiting or limiting something to meet a specific goal. This may be done by political groups, organizations, or even individuals. Even though it is generally agreed that there is a need for a general set of laws to ensure collective freedom, many nations and groups interpret the concept of censorship in many different ways.

I chose as my case study on censorship what I believe to be a specific set of issues occurring in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, the town I live in. Firstly is the fact that all of the beaches in Santa Cruz Island are not so easily accessible. By this I mean that, in contrast to the other inhabited islands in the Galapagos, all of the beaches in Santa Cruz are within either a considerable distance or only accessible through sea-related forms of transportation. The reason for this is because buildings were built on the sea borders of Puerto Ayora, and different beaches and other accesses to the ocean were blocked. As a matter of fact, in most sections of Charles Darwin Av., the main avenue of Puerto Ayora that rides along parallel to the sea, the sight of the sea is blocked by buildings.  Therefore many if not most of the islanders have very few contact with the sea, and they have not built any sort of relationship with them.

As a second matter, there is the fact that everything inside the National Park (which constitutes 97% of Galapagos) is considered out of bounds to all inhabitants of the islands and tourists, except for certified guided trips to the National Park which are directed mostly towards tourists (pricewise). This makes it so that there is very few if not any sort of contact between the common inhabitants of Santa Cruz and the rest of Galapagos and the National Park.

I consider these issues to be both direct and indirect forms of a negative and bias censorship. It is a constitutional right for all citizens to have public access to all exists to the sea, and yet many of these exists in Puerto Ayora still remain either private or not accessible. The National Park is similarly censored for all of those who don't earn enough to purchase a tour service, which includes the great majority of the Galapagueñan population.


These issues affect the Islands in many ways. Galapagos has been crowned with the title of a patrimony to humankind, and it is imperative that every inhabitant of these islands concentrate his efforts in protecting these fragile ecosystems. And yet, it seems irrational to me that we expect these inhabitants to rise up to protect and conserve the Galapagos if they have no sort of relationship with the sea and the unique wildlife to begin with, that is, what mainly makes Galapagos such a special place. And that is, not the mention the National Park Institution itself.

“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught” – Baba Dioum. 

I decided to approach these issues with a drawing of a surfer because I am a surfer myself and have had the chance to witness how productive this sport truly is. Among the many beautiful advantages this sport has, there is one that sticks out the most for me: Surfing creates a very strong bond between the people who practice it and the sea. This is the main reason of why I support surfing so much and promote many people, specially islanders, to practice it. However, most surfers in Santa Cruz Island find themselves with a disadvantage. Even though this island counts with various world-class waves, the waves closest to Puerto Ayora are of a much poorer quality, whereas the best waves are found deep within the National Park, and thus out of bounds. Surfers in Santa Cruz must wait patiently for just the right swell to arrive that stirs the bay Academia, where Puerto Ayora is situated, and then make their way to the not-so-easily accessible beaches. This makes surfing quite unpopular to the overall Santa Cruz population, even though it could serve as a great way to promote people to loving the ocean they live so close to and practically live off of.

In my art I decided to employ two main types of propaganda which are often called “name calling” and “plain folk”. Name calling is referred to the type of propaganda where you directly mention the competitor and you say bad things about him/her/it. In this case, I mention the National Park Institution and how they prohibit surfers and common folk from visiting the National Park. The plain folk technique involves using ordinary people to, well, sound ordinary. I drew an anonymous surfer to also include that feeling.

Citations:

Quizlet, "7 TYPES OF PROPAGANDA", TEEJWIN1, 2018.
https://quizlet.com/5435505/7-types-of-propaganda-techniques-flash-cards/

SWOT Analysis of GCE Lab School

From the Systems & Models course, this is my final Action Project. In this section of the course we learned mainly about I-O Psychology; what is it for? Under what circumstances is it useful and why is it an ever-growing carrier in the 21st century? We merged the apprenticeships we gained from both individual and collective psychology to understand the psychology of the workplace. I deeply enjoyed this Action Project because I had the chance of viewing my own school with a critical eye by crafting a SWOT analysis. I love my school very much, and having the opportunity to offer my point of view and having the chance to help is very gratifying. Following is a general SWOT analysis of GCE Lab School under my point of view, based on my experience with the school:

Strengths

• Action-based, passion-oriented curriculum: The way the curriculum exposes students to a real-world application fo the skills and concepts learned in the different courses, as well as how the field experience permit you to see these skills and concepts being applied already contributes to this strength.
• Sense of community where all students can contribute to: The internal and external service-related activities the school hosts and participates in, such as indoor lunch on Fridays, helping paint and decorate the school, and engaging in civic events such as 291 #enough, as well as the the small size of the school permits the students to enjoy of a sense of community among their peers & general staff.
• Healthy ambiance that favors a healing process: There are many aspects of the school that contribute to this central attribute. The school’s curriculum leads the student to the conclusion that his/her purpose lies in contributing to the betterment of the world. It guides the student towards quality relationships with their peers, teachers, family, friends, and whomever might cross their path These relationships create a healthy ambiance in and outside of the school for each student. Students learn not only to accept differences, but to benefit themselves from them. The relaxation on behalf of the school in most common classroom and homework regulations in a certain way affects students negatively, however many, if not most students who come to GCE have been sincerely affected by the irrationality and asphyxiating traditional educational system, and this “flexibility” in many ways permits the students to heal and regain their passion for learning. 

Weaknesses

• Relaxation in regulations meant for engagement/Difficulty in properly implementing the curriculum: The quality of education varies from classroom to classroom. Some of the classes I participated in were ordered, and had a set of rules to follow in class such as no eating and not using phones unless required for the following exercises, and at the same time offered a space to make open-ended questions and share work and ideas with the rest of the classmates. Homework timelines worked to help the student organize his/her time. In others, however, a little “too much” space was given. Students would end up talking about topics that were not part of the class discussion or playing games, etc. Engagement was lost along the way and students would work to simply turn their projects in before the timelines and fulfill enough of the rubric to achieve a passing grade. In other words, the “passion” aspect was lost along the way. I think all teachers should gather a set of guidelines to follow in order to effectively implement the general curriculum. The purpose of these guidelines would not be to force all teachers to follow an identical way of teaching the courses in their classes, but rather to provide the teacher with a set of tools that will help him/her have a better sense of the nature of the curriculum and will therefore help the teacher implement his own methods effectively.

Opportunities

• Partnerships: As many connections as GCE has with very valuable organizations, GCE also has the opportunity of generating partnerships with other schools that share a similar vision. This would benefit students and the school both directly by offering them the option of periodical exchanges and thus further improving their global citizenship experience, as well as indirectly by learning how other institutions apply and implement their similar visions, and therefore enriching how GCE might implement its own curriculum and vision.

Threats

• Enclosed Community: A healthy way for an organization to grow is by associating itself with other organizations with similar goals. Specially in small institutions, the same ideas tend to bounce inside the same walls time and time again, which often leads to a type of inner-circle stagnation. When new points of view are not brought into the consultation inside an organization, frequently a resistance to outer ideas begins to form and competitiveness begins to appear among its members. Generating partnerships with other organizations clearly solves this threat, given that this involves sharing apprenticeships and knowledge with other groups of people, and at the same time learning from these other groups and generating a win-win situation, where competitiveness is not part of the equation.
• Lack of Donations: Another threat that GCE might face is that they might not receive the necessary amount of profit from donations to cope with the school’s expenses. I foresee some simple solutions for this threat. One is that the school could work on their official website, given that it serves as a first impression for many donors. There could be a student’s committee in charge of constantly updating and innovating the school’s website and format. Another solution that the school might consider is to offer small yet nice & exclusive things to their donors, such as special tours around the school, or personalization such as choosing the precise section of the school they might want to donate to, or even the specific student the might like to sponsor financially. 

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Related O-I Psychology Breakthroughs:

Institute of Employment Studies (IES) in 1990 ‘From People to Profits, the HR link to the service-profit chain’ 

https://www.hrzone.com/engage/employees/history-of-employee-engagement-from-satisfaction-to-sustainability 

Psychology, “Merger, Acquisitions, Strategic Alliances.”, 2018.

http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/industrial-organizational-psychology/organizational-development/mergers-acquisitions-and-strategic-alliances/

Music and Productivity in the Senior Class

From my Systems & Models course, this is my second AP. In this unit we learned a lot about how people interact with other people, and about how individuals can mold a collective space, as well as how collective behaviors can mold individuals as well.  We also dived into the different patterns and behaviors in groups that tend to lead to either breakdowns or breakthroughs. This lead us to reflect about the social groups we are part of and the patterns they follow. For this Action Project we had to run a scientific experiment based on group observation to further explore any given topic we’d like to know about how people interact. I chose to run a experiment that addressed the following guiding question: How does the way we(students) listen to music while working affect our productivity?

Experiment Details

Taking advantage of the fact that I am visiting GCE Lab School in Chicago, I decided to do this experiment with my classmates and our teachers. There are a total of nine students in the Senior Year, and all teachers in GCE have at one point or another taught senior year, which sums up to five teachers

I created two surveys, one to be taken by students and one to be taken by teachers. The student’s survey was a series of questions that challenged them to think about what they believed to be the most productive way of listening to music while studying, in different scenarios such as in class or at home. The teacher's survey revolved around the experience they’ve had with the present senior class, with questions that would challenge them to think about the different ways students interact with music and, based on their observance, which way they believed to to be most productive.

 RS, Senior GCE class, 2018.

 RS, Senior GCE class, 2018.

Hypothesis

I believe that even though most students think that they can concentrate better when listening to music with their earphones, the results will show through the teacher’s overall observance that students are most productive when they listen to music with a speaker.

Research

In order to have a bit of context as to what the world already knows about the topic I chose for my experiment, I did some research on how music affects individuals in the workplace in general. Studies show that music can boost your productivity when the type of music is in harmony with the given type of work or scenario. Songs with lyrics, for example, or songs with more complex musical structure tend to reduce productivity when the given task requires critical thinking. However, other studies such as a study from the University of Helsinki  note that the simple act of listening to music while in class can help improve students’ memory and learning capacity. There is also evidence that shows that music played at low volumes during class activities can boost creativity and concentration. 

I also found some interesting studies about how listening to music with headphones often becomes a social barrier in the workplace. The use of headphones in the workplace was cited as a major office-etiquette problem in a 2010 survey of 1,400 chief information officers by Robert Half Technology.  Social dynamics are very important in a classroom; even in individual work some teachers from GCE Chicago expect their students to socialize and compare their coursework to arrive to a richer conclusion. Therefore, it can be inferred that listening to music with earphones in the classroom can sometimes be counterproductive.

Data from experiments

I received a total of seven surveys completed by students, and five surveys completed by teachers. The results were as shown:

Student’s Survey

When I asked students whether they preferred listening to music with earphones, with a general speaker, or not listening to music at all, 62.5% of them preferred earphones, 25% preferred no music at all, and only 12.5% preferred using a speaker.

When the scenario was changed to schoolwork at home though, the response was very different. 50% of the students preferred using a speaker at home, 37.5% preferred no music at all, and only 12.5% preferred using earphones. 

The type of music heard while studying was generally varied, and most students heard the same music genres for all types of schoolwork, disregarding what the schoolwork implied you to do. 

Teacher’s Survey

Teachers agreed that listening to music with earphones can be distracting, on average, 51% of the time, compared to the average of 11% distraction when a speaker is used in class (with a low volume.) 

The most popular music genre played by teachers in class is classical, though many vary depending on the task at hand. When students are doing quiet independent work like writing or drawing, some teachers use mellow rhythms and instrumental music to encourage students to focus. However, when students are working on a project or in groups, teachers often use different genres such as pop and rock. A very small percentage of teachers prefer not using music in class in any way.

Analysis When comparing the student’s most popular ways of listening to music while working at school and at home, the data suggests that most students use earphones in the classroom to block out noises such as chattering, laughing, etc, though perhaps prefer using a speaker while working alone. This is especially conflicting because even though students use earphones with the intention of isolating themselves and reaching higher levels of concentration, most teachers agree that this is the most distracting music-listening technique. Teacher’s data also generally suggests that listening to genres that go well with the task at hand are most likely to rise productivity levels in students. Conclusion A major problem in class is that there are many distracting noises that prevent students from concentrating, especially when the given task involves quiet, independent work. Most students then resort to plugging their earphones in to block out the noise, but the data suggest that this is mostly counterproductive and clearly not a solution. On the other hand, hearing music with a speaker, both in class in at home, especially with a low volume and music that is in harmony with the given type of schoolwork, has been proved to help students concentrate and be generally more productive.

CITATIONS

The Wall Street Journal, “At Work, Do Headphones Really Help?”, June 7, 2012.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303395604577432341782110010  

Inc., “Listening To Music While Doing Homework: Is It A Good Idea?”, December 12, 2017

https://www.inc.com/melissa-chu/research-shows-listening-to-music-increases-produc.html  

The University of Scranton, “ Music in the Classroom Proves Beneficial for Learning”, 2017.

https://www.uscranton.com/resources/teaching-tips/music-in-the-classroom-proves-beneficial-for-learning/#.WxBo3EiUu3A 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Revised

I am studying a course called Equality, and this is my first Action Project. In this unit we studied about the principle of citizenship and of how its definition has transformed (and continues to transform) in time. We learned about this concept by studying the arguments and actions of thinkers in history such as Aristotle, and finally crafted our own conception of the matter. We also reviewed and questioned two main human rights declarations: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Bill of Rights. For this Action Project we had to craft our own declaration of human rights with the guidance of our concept of citizenship, addressing a specific issue we believe to be controversial. I believe my declaration is important and necessary because it offers a unique perspective on citizenship that confronts the prejudices that affect our world arising from divisionary and discriminatory barriers.

Citizenship is a very interesting term; its true definition and purpose has been debated directly and indirectly through official constitutions and other documents throughout history. My approach to citizenship is deeply intertwined with a concept I like to call “double moral purpose.” In order for humanity to truly progress, all world citizens must be imbued in a purpose that impulses them to transform individually as well as contribute to the transformation of society.

I believe that a true and coherent definition of citizenship must include primarily all the peoples of the world. I arrived to this conclusion from the realization that norms and modes of individual behavior determine the social environment, and are shaped at the same time by social structures and processes. Therefore, if citizenship does not apply to a certain group of individuals, and are consequently deprived of the laws that protect others who citizenship does apply to, the overall collective advancement of that community is hindered.

 Thus, if a specific group of persons is suffering, the whole world is being collectively affected by it, once again, hindering its advancement.

Furthermore, I have also come to the conclusion that the subtle forms of self-interest and self-centeredness that all independent countries tend to adopt comes from the lack of direct exterior interaction and of assuming global goals. They lack of standards to judge their own progress, and it is then that they eventually forget the social dimension that comes hand-in-hand with a sense of purpose, falling into arrogance and self-satisfaction.

In my project I decided to revise the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). My biggest concern, however,  did not lie in the existing articles of the present UDHR, but rather in how this document is being enforced, article by article, in the world.

I believe that there is a sense of responsibility behind using terms such as “all human beings”, “everyone”, and “no one shall be subjected to” ,present in the UDHR, that fell upon the United Nations the moment they adopted the Declaration. I also think that this responsibility is not being fully met by the United Nations, by the mere fact that the UDHR is not an official treaty, and therefore does not directly create legal obligations for countries.

The official body of the United Nations responsible for enforcing the UDHR across the globe is the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). My project addresses my point of view of how this Council should work.

My List of Articles:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights must be implemented to all world citizens in all the countries of the world, under the following circumstances:

• All constitutions of all independent countries shall be centered towards the globalized concept of human rights displayed in the UDHR, and yet each shaped to strengthen and ensure the blossoming of their own cultures, achieving unity in diversity.

The United Nations Human Rights Council

• The purpose of the UNHRC is to enforce the UDHR across the globe. The Council shall be conformed by individuals representative to each section of the world who may openly consult on the implementing methods of the UDHR. These members shall be elected by the peoples of each section of the world in a purely democratic manner. Each member of the UNHCR has the responsibility of actively participating in the consultations of the Council by providing the Council with a cultural perspective of how the articles of the UDHR shall be applied to their own section of the world, and how the Council shall work with each independent country towards achieving the goal of harmonizing their constitutions with the UDHR.

Elections of the UNHRC

• Eluding partidistic politics, there shall instead be a fixed set of criteria, whereas every individual who fits into this set is automatically applicable to both vote and be elected.  The election process shall also elude campaigning, and therefore any individual or group of individuals spotted by the UNHCR to promote themselves for a seat in the Council shall be considered to not having met the necessary criteria. In the voting process, the secret ballot method shall also be applied.

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To further understand how the modern concept of citizenship affects our world (and why it needs to be rethought) I decided to conduct some research that looked into how citizenship works in the United States, a country with an approximate of 10.9 million illegal immigrants, according to a report by the Center for Migration Studies in January 2016. I learned that citizenship can, in principle be obtained by legal residents but it is incredibly difficult, takes a lot of time, and is less probable to work if you are a member of a cultural minority or have a low education. This is a problem because there is entire communities in the US that are not citizens, and are therefore not covered by the same laws of everyone else. This issue is especially relevant because these illegal communities after all, cannot vote. Many studies question whether the most effective way of legalizing about 3% of the population is the way it is presently being done. 

Under a global perspective, it became evident to me how the mere fact that thousands of people from across the world are moving away from their countries to apply for citizenships in others is proof of two things: Some countries are more just towards their citizens than others, and human rights today in a great part rest upon what citizenship applies to you.

In my declaration I address the prejudices that arise from national, racial, and gender-based barriers that the world is being presently affected by. I do this by defining the world of humanity as “one race” and the surface of the earth “one place of residence.”1 Through my declaration I take in account the diversity of culture that enriches and adorns humanity by defining nationality as a symbol of culture and identity only, instead of a symbol of superiority and privilege as it is seen in much cases today.

CITATIONS

1 Abd’ul-Bahá,  The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 231.

Quora, “Do the UN-declared Human Rights apply to all countries in the United Nations?”

https://www.quora.com/Do-the-UN-declared-Human-Rights-apply-to-all-countries-in-the-United-Nations

  

Wikipedia, “United Nations Human Rights Council”, March 29, 2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council

Scholars Strategy Network, “How barriers to citizenship status increase inequality in the United States”, Sofya Aptekar, May 15, 2015

https://scholars.org/brief/how-barriers-citizenship-status-increase-inequality-united-states

Wikipedia,”Immigrant population in the United States”, April 8, 2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrant_population_of_the_United_States

Local Music Workshop

GCE requires students to complete at least 50 hours of extra-curricular work in order to graduate. To complete my hours I decided to embark myself in a series of activities such as Seminars, volunteering jobs, workshops, etc. This is a small retailing of a two-day Local Music Workshop I helped organize in the town of Chongón, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

I was part of the consulting body that crafted and organized the first ever Local Music Workshop in Latin America, held on December of 2017. Te purpose of this workshop, similarly to the Continental Music Workshops organized by the Medios para la Transformación Project, was to compose music that would create a positive influence in the town of Chongon, in accordance to its reality. The workshop was held in two days, and two songs were composed and recorded.

At first, we were all rather nervous knowing that we had little time to meet out goal of two full songs. However, the capacity of the participant youths was clearly evident by the second day, were actual composing began to take place. It was an experience that enriched us all and motivated us to try a second, more lengthy workshop, which will take place in a couple of weeks.

Volunteering in the Charles Darwin Foundation: Field trip in "Fisheries" Project

GCE requires students to complete at least 50 hours of extra-curricular work in order to graduate. To complete my hours I decided to embark myself in a series of activities such as Seminars, volunteering jobs, workshops, etc. This is a small retailing of a volunteering job I participated (and am still participating in) in the Charles Darwin Foundation.

I have been volunteering in a project called "Ecology and Evaluation of Fisheries" for the past 7 months, in the CDF. This project seeks to increase the knowledge of the ecology, life history and population dynamics of major fishery target species and the habitats they occupy in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. The goal of the CDF is to provide up-to-date information for the improvement of fisheries management on the islands.

I participated on a 3-day field trip to the island of Floreana, in a small fishing boat together with two fishermen and a co-worker from the CDF. The purpose of the field trip was to record the time and place were the fishermen caught (or didn't catch) fish, as well as data from the fishes such as the specie and their longitude to further broaden the knowledge of the different species, as well as their average fishing rate. Fishermen don't usually have a need to get down on the island but rather fish around it, which is what we did. We never got off the boat, and ate, slept, and did everything else on the little boat throughout the journey. Even though I only walked on the island once (In a lunch break when we anchored the boat on a small bay with a beach in the protected area of the island), I got to know Floreana and its wildlife more than any $1,000 cruise could have offered me. I also learned a lot about the life of a fishermen, and its privileges (your diet is based on the famous refrain "from the sea to your table") and getting to know all of this and living their life for three days considerably expanded my vision of life.

Floreana is also a funny island because there is only 201 inhabitants and the town is about 8 blocks. So Floreana is mostly one big forest! And being able to go all around it and seeing so much endemic and new flora and fauna for me was simply magical.

ISGP Seminar

GCE requires students to complete at least 50 hours of extra-curricular work in order to graduate. To complete my hours I decided to embark myself in a series of activities such as Seminars, volunteering jobs, workshops, etc. This is a small retailing of a 10-day seminar I participated in called Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity (ISGP) in December of 2017.

ISGP is an Institute that offers a 4-year seminar, which seeks to raise the youth's capacity to participate in the prevailing discourses of society. The program deeply introduces the participant to the different efforts done by the Baha'i community to contribute to the progress of society, and explores some of the concepts and fundamental principles that sustain the Baha'i community's work, to finally reflect about the different ways the participant can raise his capacity to contribute, in ever greater levels of sophistication and efficiency, to the progress of civilization.

This was my first year participating in ISGP, and Year 1 has the following table of contents:

Main areas of activity: This section refers to the different efforts conducted by the Baha'i community in favor to the advance of civilization in all its multiple dimensions, categorized into three main categories: expansion and consolidation, social action, and the participation in the discourses of society. These dimensions construct a conceptual framework within which youth can seek their spiritual and intellectual growth, and to contribute to the advance of civilization with higher levels of sophistication and effectiveness.

Basis concepts: This section introduces a series of concepts such as "attraction to beauty", "the investigation of truth", and "service" that are useful to consider when participating in a "discourse of social action", or the general flow of such conversations.

Harmony between science and religion: This section is about the relationship between science and religion, and their interface with development. Participants here create the ability to craft and  promote a discourse on science, religion, and development.

Culture and communication: This section is about how communication gives form to common understanding, creating and recreating culture, and how these two notions of communication and culture are crucial for the process of construction of communities.

Conversations: This final section enforces participants with the ability to engage and elevate the state of a conversation.

More than 80 youth from across the country participated in the seminar, and it was an amazing experience to learn and consult about such deep topics with people my age. These ten days gave a perfect ambiance for the construction and strengthening of friendships, and I keep contact with many of my fellow participants to this day, participating together in different activities that serve communities.

Self Portrait

I am studying a course called "Systems & Models", and this is my first Action Project. In this unit I studied about the different tools psychology offers to better understand who we are as individuals. I reviewed a number of personality tests and questioned their objectivity, as well as different research experiments that have shaped the way we understand personality and behavior. For this Action Project, I had to gather all of the information I learned throughout the unit to create a meaningful self portrait, accompanied by an artistic declaration. I thoroughly enjoyed every single step of this AP, and I am very thankful for this opportunity.

“Self Portrait 1”
Mixed Media Art (Graphite, Carbon, Watercolor Pencils)
 420×297 mm

In the midst of creating this piece of work, I decided to write a small poem that further described the way I see myself and my belief in transcendence:

La Eternidad 

y su irresistible invitación

me llamó a una copa de vino

y me embriagó de amor por la humanidad.

En aquel estado de éxtasis

observé al mundo nacer

vivir 

al vivir morir

y al morir nacer;

vi al mundo trascender.

La Eternidad

lució su voz penetrante

para decirme algo que ya vagamente sospechaba

“no he hecho más

que abrir tus ojos interiores

no he hecho más 

que pulir tus ojos exteriores

no he hecho más 

que así hacer mímica de tu vida

eternamente cambiante, exquisitamente bella.”

Translation:

Eternity

and his irresistible invitation 

called me for a glass of wine

and made me drunk of love for humanity.

In that state of ecstasy

I watched the world being born

live

when living dying

and when dying being born;

I watched the world transcend.

Eternity

poured his penetrating voice

to tell me something I vaguely suspected

“I have done nothing more

than open your inner eyes

I have done nothing more

than polish your outer eyes

I have done nothing more

than make mimic of your life

eternally changing, exquisitely beautiful.”

I picture myself as an evolving being, constantly walking the road of excellence. The road of excellence is full of small, reachable daily tasks, as well as ups and downs, and varies greatly from the road of perfection, a circular road that takes you nowhere except to frustration. The road of excellence is never-ending, and yet full of small finish lines which lead us to the starting lines of a new day and a new goal. 

I picture myself as a being devoted to humanity, who drop by drop strives to empty himself as a fountain, and who wholeheartedly believes that by doing so (and by doing so only), he may be filled once again with the renewed water of life.

...................................................................................................................................................................

In my self portrait, I contrast time with progress. Time is necessary for progress and progress is inevitable in time. This contrast is created by the old and ragged clothing on the right side of the drawing, and my figure, which includes: my face, my (long) hair, and the colorful neck of my shirt. 

The ragged clothing represents my suffering and the different life-tests that at one point limited my growth. In the case of my drawing, old clothing limits my appearance to something indecent and unclean, impure.  And yet, these very same life tests have gifted me with the power of change. They have been the cornerstones that have guided the construction of self into an “evolving being, constantly walking the road of excellence.” 

My face has special detail on the eyes, in order to express depth and vision. I decided to shape my hair much longer than usual as a symbol of healthiness, and I chose different shades of green for the shirt of my neck to symbolize renewed life, hope, and peace. 

 I used a photographic “grid” to set the aspects of my self portrait in place, setting my face just about in the middle between the two horizontal and vertical lines, and placing the torn clothing in the right vertical line. The pants are in the bottom right corner of the grid, and the shirt is in the top right corner of the grid. All of the far corners in the grid are focus points for the human eye. 

Something that I feel like my self portrait clearly represents is my perception of the principle of personality. I believe personality is, in its most primitive aspect, the unique blend of qualities and defects that a person possesses, and how this blend is manifested in social interactions in accordance to certain variables such as culture. Therefore, I believe that even though there are certain things in an individual’s personality that are more like to change and less likely to change in the course of his life, if the individual faces a situation where he must change his unique set of qualities and defect for his own betternment, he is capable of doing so. 

The most common personality theory states that personality is the series of consistent characteristics that uniquely define a certain person. In other words, at least the main “core” of an individual’s personality is bound not to change over the course of his entire life. However, for over a century this interpretation has been questioned by a number of experiments. For example, there was an experiment conducted by researchers Hartshorne and May in 1928 that researched honesty in children under a variety of different circumstances and settings. In this experiment, children were given the opportunity to lie/cheat in distinct case scenarios such as at school or at home. What they found out is that some kids who would take advantage and cheat in certain scenarios would often have a completely different reaction under different settings. Ultimately, this experiment is one of the many that bring to question the definition of personality adopted by most human beings nowadays.

Regarding that traditional belief, even though I favor the opposing side I’d like to include that I don’t believe it necessary for someone to constantly question his personality. I categorize everything in our personality as qualities and defects, but I don’t believe it is healthy for someone to excessively question his defects and demand a complete eradication of them. After all, we are humans and human beings are imperfect; this is our nature! The only way to truly walk the path of excellence is by firstly learning to love ourselves, human as we are. 

Even though the following quote is more centered towards loving others, I think it applies perfectly in the aspect of learning how to love yourself:

“You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.”

– Sam Keen

...................................................................................................................................................................

To better understand the nature behind the art of sketching and how it may be used to express ideas, I interviewed Erika Solis, an artist and educator from the Galapagos Islands. She told me about the different aspects that define a piece of art, such as size, style, materials, colors, and symmetry/positioning. We reviewed the photographic “grid”, and the Fibonacci sequence/spiral, as well as the psychology of colors. This last aspect was new to me, for I rarely use colors on my art, and it expanded my thoughts and perception. I decided to use colors to highlight certain parts of my self-portrait and express certain principles that I feel like represent me. Miss Erika is a watercolor pencil artist, and she encouraged me to use watercolors for different reasons: Watercolor pencils are much easier to blend, and using blending techniques one can create new colors by merging them. She convinced me, and I am glad she did.

Reflecting a bit, I’ve realized that for some reason as a kid I decided that I was not good at drawing faces. Since then, I rarely tried doing so, and when I noticed that the first Action Project for this Course was a self portrait, I must admit I panicked. The first thing I did was dive into the art of drawing faces by reading articles and watching videos regarding mainly the symmetry of the human face. With the guidance of a step-by-step video, I began sketching my face. And impressively, my first sketch was pretty accurate! I gathered up my confidence, and I began drawing right away.

There were two new materials and techniques I used in this self-portrait:

I decided to use carbon for my hair, to add a different texture to my drawing. Once again with the help of the powerful tool of the Internet, I began sketching my hair with different techniques. After getting some right and some wrong, I  finally settled with a rather simple technique.

I also decided to use watercolor pencils for my collar. With the help of Miss Erika, I began to learn how to use watercolor pencils with some blending exercises. Using the color psychology code and with some extra guidance from of Miss Erika, I chose a set of colors which related well with each other and went along with the principles I wanted to portray.

...................................................................................................................................................................

I hope for this art piece to be a symbol of hope, specially among youth. Some of us are either born, raised, or by our own actions driven to certain unfavorable situations, and sometimes no matter how hard we try to raise above these issues, we feel condemned by them. But may my story and the story of millions of others in history offer proof that life never gives us a test that we cannot prevail. And may art be our friend and companion through the journey.

Citations:

Sam Keen, To Love and Be Loved

“Perfectionism vs. Excellence” by Marc Winn, February 27, 2013.
http://theviewinside.me/perfectionism-vs-excellence/

“Is Your Personality Fixed, Or Can You Change Who You Are?” Invisibilia Podcast, June 24, 2016.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/24/481859662/invisibilia-is-your-personality-fixed-or-can-you-change-who-you-are

Survival Manual on How to Make a Music Album

From the “Endurance” course I am studying, this is my 3rd and last Action Project. In the previous unit that led to my 2nd Action Project, I made a rough design of a mission I wanted to pursue throughout my life, and I experienced in a small degree what that mission might feel like. In this present unit, I extensively planned my life mission of composing and recording a full album of nine songs that would permit me to both express and share my apprenticeships and my vision with the world, and permit me to use my art as a tool through which I can serve mankind. This planning contains key points such as timelines, what if’s and the resources/materials I will need.

I compiled all of my planning in a “survival manual”, which includes the life of two individuals who approached music similarly to how I plan to do so, and a series of quotes that inspire me to walk the path of excellence. I designed this manual in order to continuously strengthen my objectivity and fervor throughout the completion of my mission.

RS, Cover of Survival Manual, 2018

To access my manual, press here

The Pitch

I am studying a course called “Social Impact by Youth Entrepreneurs”, and this is my first and only Action Project. This course guided me through learning the extense definition of entrepreneurship and its vast implications. I also learned a lot about myself, and what I truly cared about and valued. I learned how to craft a mission and a vision, a hedgehog concept, and a marketing and sales plan. Most of the activities throughout the course had to be developed around a fake or real entrepreneurship of our liking and doing, and I decided to use a small granola business my brother and I have been working on for the last 6 months for the activities. These activities clarified many things for me, and as I progressed in the course so would the effectiveness and organization of our little business.

For my Action Project I had to write a 2-minute pitch presenting my company, its market context, financial projection, competition and the barriers it may face, along with a series of other criteria. The following video is my pitch/presentation:

This is a transcript of my pitch:

Slide 1

Scoggin’s Granola breaks the unhealthy schemes that rise incertitude on whether granola is a healthy way to start your day, offering a homemade baked cereal rich in natural sugars, fats, and flavour!

Slide 2

If you  are a regular granola consumer and you like to know what you are actually eating, you’ve probably heard of the terms “ Evaporated cane juice, molasses, brown rice syrup or oat syrup solids.” These are all sources of sugar you usually find in Granola, and yes, they are bound to be healthier than high-fructose corn syrup, but there is nothing like the raw, unprocessed panela Scoggin’s Granola uses as its only sweetener, along with raisins. Scoggin’s Granola is also baked in a slow-fire-like process, which permits the variety of oats to fully absorb the flavour of the panela, accompanied by peanuts, raisins, and dry coconut, which give you the right amount of energy to start your day.

Slide 3

Joshua Scoggin and myself have been working very hard for the last 6 months, taking the companies’ first steps with firmness and commitment. Scoggin’s Granola is sold in the following presentations: 60g, for a snack while in school or at work, or after a sports activity; breakfast sizes such as 340g and 400g, and family sizes such as 600g and 1kg.

Slide 4

We believe that separating the concepts of “business” and “world improvement” is a dichotomy. Presently, our business is developing in the Galapagos Islands, where hundreds if not thousands of tons of food are imported from the mainland every week. Scoggin’s Granola is implementing a project that supports local panela, peanuts, and coconut production, directly supporting the local economy, as well lowering the ecological footprint of the Galapagos population. Our company has an amazing sense of potentiality by the simple fact that there is presently no other local Granola producer in the Galapagos Islands; all of the Granola consumed in the Islands is imported. The Galapagos community has always stood out for its constant concern for the conservancy of this wonder of the world, and growing worries of the amount of imported food & goods continue to arise. Thus, a variety of initiatives that support local production have begun to appear. We believe that Scoggin’s Granola fits perfectly with the future trends that will further value sustainable, healthy, and local production. We know our product has the potential to grow and grow fast. We have planned an intense growth campaign for the next 4 months, expecting to also grow in profit that we intent to use mostly in the strengthening of the organizational pillar of the company.
After 4 months, both Joshua and I will be gone from the Galapagos Islands for at least a year, and our next goal is to leave behind a strong team of reliable individuals who will make sure of the companies’ continuity and further growth.
We are asking for what we believe to be a reasonably small amount: $5,000. Your return? A total of 8% on interest, yearly.

Song 1: Ornamento

I am studying a course called Endurance, and this is my second Action Project. In this Unit I had to let myself dream and craft a mission of my liking. This mission could take months or years. For my Action Project I had to dedicate 12 hours to completing a task that related itself with the mission I had chosen, documenting along the way, as an appetizer of sorts for the life mission to come. I chose as my mision to fully compose, produce and masterize an album of 9 songs. Consequently, I chose as my 12-hour-task to compose a song.

The following video is the documentation I did in the process of developing my task.

 
The following video is the song I composed, called Ornamento (Ornament is Spanish)

Song Title: Ornamento (Ornament)

Song Lyrics: 

Vecino, amigo, hermano

con ese cuchillo en el pecho

Cómo es que te has levantado

sin pena a vivirla de nuevo?

Cómo es que tu sonrisa le ha ganado al sangrado?

Se ha cicatrizado.

Te he visto danzando en mis días 

cambiando de sexo y de mira

te he visto danzando en el tiempo

brindando esperanza escondida

Cómo es que yo te miro, te escucho, y de pronto confío?

Y aparece al despejar 

mi certidumbre en la ansiada paz.

Percibo el perfume divino

que viene de tu vestidura 

me atrevo a llamarte el consuelo

que adorna los días, las noches

te cuento que ahora confío, con labios partidos, y aspiro tu aroma

y mi fuerza no da lugar

a la insustancialidad.

Translation: 

Neighbor, friend, brother

with that knife in the chest

How are you getting up

without regret to live it again?

How is it that your smile has beat the bleeding?

It has healed.

I've seen you dancing in my days

changing sex and look

I've seen you dancing in time

offering hidden hope

How is it that I look at you, I listen to you, and suddenly I trust?

And, as the day clears 

my certainty for peace appears.

I perceive the divine perfume

that comes from your vestment

I dare to call you the consolation

that adorns the days, the nights

I tell you that now I trust, with split lips, and I aspire your aroma

and my strength does not give rise

to insubstantiality.

Music is Service

I am studying a course called "Endurance", and this is my first Action Project. For this Action Project I had to write the first chapter to my own autobiography, 30 years into the future. I imagined myself being 47 years old, recalling all the goals I have achieved and difficulties I have endured. During this first unit, called "Morpheus", I learned a lot about myself. I identified my strengths and weaknesses, challenged my mental and physical abilities,  and learned about how other characters in history have coped with trials and difficulties of all kinds, such as Ernest Shackleton and his crew aboard the Endurance. My autobiography is titled "Music is Service", and its first chapter is found below, titled "Melodies of my Childhood ,Youth and Adulthood"

Investing, Investing...

I am studying a course called Economics, and this is my last Action Project. For this AP I had to craft my own investment portfolio based on the imaginary scenario where I was given a sum of money, originally in a savings account created by my guardian angel many years ago ,which had been compounding annually ever since. The sum of money added up to a total of $50,556.80. I was free to invest this amount of money in publicly traded companies in any way I wished. In order to invest most effectively, I took my life goals in account, as well as my tolerance risk, investment philosophy, and a series of other considerations that gave me a broader conceptual framework.  This AP was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about myself, in all the different aspects mentioned previously (I faced so many questions I had never even considered before!).

As I continued with my project, I tried to direct all my decisions towards my investment philosophy. Investment for me is a mutual favor  between the investor and the company. The investor funds the company  through money and/or other goods, and therefore earns an asset of the company. This asset is the company’s promise of some certain or uncertain return of the funds in the future, with a potential of a higher return. But in order for this mutual favor to work, I believe that the company must be providing goods and/or services that are in a direct or indirect way improving the world. After all, I am investing for this company’s future growth!

But how can we know whether a company is improving the world? I believe justice takes a big part in answering this question. A company that is just with its employees by paying decent wages as well as with its customers by charging a fair amount for its goods/services is a necessary criteria. Responding to the necessities  of a certain community (the broader of a community the better) I believe is in addition a quality of vital importance. An environmentally sustainable company, or with an every-day improving pollution record is also a key characteristic, as well as a company with leaders who display their ethics through action. One more quality I must mention is a company free of child labor.

According to Rutgers University’s Risk Tolerance Quiz, I have a pretty low average for risk. I believe that assumption is asserted in most of the circumstances the quiz described; however, if I believe I am working to achieve a clear goal for a noble purpose, I don’t mind taking some bigger risks.

RS, Risk Tolerance Quiz

I set three financial goals in different time horizons for this project. These financial goals are much more long-term than anything else. I believe this fits with my personality and, specifically when talking about investing, is much smarter:

• 1-year goal: I’d like to visit GCE in Chicago for my graduation, and support my parents with the price of the plain tickets with $1,000.
• 5-year goal: $20,000 to pay off some of my college loans, if any.
• 25-year goal: A savings account for my children’s education, with $80,000

The two markets I chose to invest in are renewable energies and cosmetics. Out of the many companies I researched, two of them stood out from the rest: Pattern Energy and L'Oréal. They seemed to me as a good distribution to my investments because both Pattern Energy and L'Oréal have strengths and weaknesses that complement each other. L'Oréal is rich in history and counts with a strong establishment, while Pattern Energy takes part in transforming the world to Renewable Energy, something I consider a major necessity. Also, a great (near) financial  future is expected for Pattern Energy.

Here is a little more detail about these two companies:

Pattern Energy (PEGI): Pattern Energy is an independent power company, with a portfolio of 20 wind power facilities in the United States, Canada, and Chile. As they put it in their website (patternenergy.com), Pattern Energy is “transitioning the world to renewable energy”. PEGI is committed to protecting the environment and consider it their responsibility to produce clean, renewable energy to consumers with minimal impact. PEGI offers 7.3% in dividend yield (one of the highest of the sector; recently $0.422/share) and a simple financing structure.

Pattern Energy Stock Price, 2017.

L'Oréal (LRLCY): L'Oréal is the world’s largest cosmetics company. Its headquarters are located in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France.L'Oréal offers a maximum of 0.5% in dividends to shareholders who have continuously held their shares for a minimum of two years; however its dominant position, which comes from its grand branding power and great stability leaves only a slight room for any disruption to other similar businesses.  Last year, L'Oréal was named the “World’s most ethical company” of 2017 for the 8th consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and measuring the standards of ethical business practices. L'Oréal works with organizations such as the Anti-corruption Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce, the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, the International Business Ethics Institute, and several others in a “spirit of continuous improvement”, as they state in their webpage.

L'Oréal Stock Price, 2017.

I have distributed my investments in 3 portfolios:

Portfolio l- 1 Year Goal

$25,148.00

56 Shares of LRLCY @ 223.88 ($12,509 total)(49.7% of portfolio)

583 Shares of PEGI @ $21.68 ($12,639 total)(50.3% of portfolio

I will benefit myself from this first investment only from dividend earnings, which sum up to $1,024.44. My 1-year-goal will therefore be achieved. The ROI of this portfolio is of 10.8%

• LRLCY has an expected ROI of 9.7%
• PEGI has an expected ROI of 12.7%
• The ROI of this portfolio is of 10.8%
• Future value of all shares: $27,966.52

Portfolio ll-5 Year Goal

$25,148.00

56 Shares of LRLCY @ $223.88 ($12,509 total)(49.7% of portfolio)

583 Shares of PEGI @ $21.68 ($12,639 total)(50.3% of portfolio)

This portfolio is similar to the first, but my plan is to cash these shares out by year 5, earning a total of $21,547.62, dividend earnings included. This meets my 5-year-goal. The ROI of this portfolio is also 10.8%, of course.

• L’Oréal has an expected ROI of 12.4% after 5 years
• Calculating the PEGI expected ROI for the next 5 years was no easy ordeal. 5 years ago, PEGI’s share value was 6.8% more than the present one. However, I think it is unreal to believe that its share value will further decrease on average for the next five years; there is a series of signals that point towards a take off from the Renewable Energy market in the next five years, for many more years to come. I came up with what I believe is a much more asserted way of calculating the ROI for the the next five years: I calculated the ROI of the last year and of the last 2 years, and I finally calculated an average between the two. The result was an ROI of 9.4%
• Future value of all shares: $42,247.74
• Dividend earnings: $4,447.88

Portfolio lll-25 Year Goal

$25,398

28 Shares of LRLCY @ $223.88 ($6,255 total)(24.6% of portfolio)

883 Shares of PEGI @ $21.68 ($19,143 total)(75.3% of portfolio)

I plan on making this investment while in parallel I cash out the previous one. Therefore, I calculated my earnings on an 20 year span, given that I will invest this portfolio 5 years after the first investment. I will earn a total of $125,227.21, which exceeds my 25-year-goal by a lot!

• L’Oréal has an expected ROI of 9.6% after 20 years
• Once again, I used 9.4% as PEGI’s expected ROI.
• The ROI of this portfolio is of 8.2%
• Dividend earnings: $39,894.9
• Future value of all shares: $154,563.59

Total Investment Portfolios Value: $50,556.8

(coming in $10.8 less than the initial amount)

A series of considerations guided me through deciding how to invest in relation to the time horizons. I decided to invest just about half of the money at first, and have it compound for 5 years. This first step will also serve me as a test run; if everything goes fine, and the markets these companies belong to don’t suffer from any sort of economic depression, I will continue with investing the second half of the money, and have it compound for a much longer time. I decided to invest on the long run, specially for this second investment, because I’m not exactly counting on this money for the near future (after all, it was a gift!), and why not? With some calculations I have noticed that time in investing makes all the difference!

In the long-term, I invested much more on PEGI. This is what the total performance of my investments looks like:

RS, My Investments.

The ROI of my portfolio’s compared to the S&P 500 looks something like this:

Evidently, the ROI of the S&P 500 is considerably more than that of my portfolios’. However, I believe I have reached larger goals with these investments that an ROI. Through these investments, besides meeting my financial goals I am supporting two companies which I feel have something most companies can learn from: both distinguish themselves in one way or another by how they apply their ethics in their doings.

These are the assumptions I made in this Action Project:

• I am assuming  in my calculations that both L’Oreal and Pattern Energy will continue to be leaders in their markets because of their continuous growth, their quality and the type of service they provide.
• I am assuming that that even though Pattern Energy’s performance hasn’t been the best on average in the last 5 years, it will grow much more, as it has been doing in the last year.
• I am also assuming that both Pattern Energy and L’Oreal highlight more than most or even rather all other companies in their markets for financial, ethic, and productive reasons.

The Chakra of the Artisan: Alternative Food & Other Goods on Santa Cruz Island

I am studying a course called “Journalism”, and this is my 3rd and last Action Project. For this Action Project I had to cover an event with a “spot” story, using the tools I have acquired during the course as a whole, such as objectivity and the inverted pyramid of journalism, among many others.

In this 3rd Unit I learned about some of the essential skills and concepts of written-journalism, specifically in the present century. I also learned about some of the values written-journalism has, and about how it has certain advantages that cannot be found in any other form of journalism.

I chose to report on the “Chakra of the Artisan”, a farmer’s market hosted once a month in Bellavista, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. I chose this event because it seemed to me like an interesting initiative; after all, there are only a handful of farmers markets on the Island. My brother and I were also asked to play music at the event, and that sounded fun!

This was my first time covering an event as a journalist, which made it all the more interesting. I was impressed about how much more I ended up discovering about an event when I looked at it from a journalistic point of